*The Great U75 Politics Reading List Thread.

[elbows]

No I think that was Karl Mannheim. Reich did start talking some bollox later in life, when he got carried away investigating Orgone energy without the necessary scientific knowledge, and then thought his Orgone energy gun was doing stuff to aliens in the sky etc. But ealier on when he focussed on human Psychology and politics etc, he was rather amazing IMHO.

 

[Idris2002]

If you want more Goldsteinisms, try the book that inspired Orwell's The Book -

Burnhams The Managerial State, if memory serves.

 

[Idris2002]

Is Wilhelm Reich the one with the theory of "negative democratisation"? Cause that's bollocks that is ...

Wtf is 'negative democratisation'.

Is Reich's early work OK, then? 'cause I'd always associated him with the nutjobbery of his later years.

 

[elbows]

Well the 2 Reich works I mentioned are all Ive read from him, but I loved them. I dont agree with 100% of what he said in the early days, but I found myself to be pretty amazed by a lot of his insights. Mass Psychology Of Fascism is rather long, Listen Little Man might be a better place to start, I believe there are some sample pages available on Amazon which should give a good idea.

Actually just found this page which has loads of the illustrations - lol Im in love with it all over again...

http://www.hermes-press.com/reich.htm

Cheers for the Managerial State tipoff Idris2002, a friend has told me about it but Ive not had the opportunity to read it yet.

 

[butchersapron]

I wouldn't bother wasting your time (no offence Idris) - early Reich is well worth chasing up, the ideas are well summed up in The Irrational in Politics: Sexual Repression and Authoritarian Conditioning, by Maurice Brinton, which i'm sure is online somewhere.

 

[Idris2002]

Just thought he might find it interesting as background to Goldstein's magnum opus.

There's a school of post-Soviet East European studies which puts Burnham's book in a long line of New Class thinkers which they think might be (partially) applicable to post-1989 eastern E.

Love this;

In 1940 Reich spent five hours with Einstein. When Reich left, he said to Einstein, "You understand now why everyone thinks I'm mad." Einstein replied: "And how."

 

[butchersapron]

He did i end up being forcibly locked up if remember rightly...

 

[General Ludd]

Summary of Mass Pyschology Of Fascism by the Surveillance Camera Players

 

[In Bloom]

If you want more Goldsteinisms, try the book that inspired Orwell's The Book -

Burnhams The Managerial State, if memory serves.

I always thought it was meant to be Capital

 

[Sorry.]

Wtf is 'negative democratisation'.

As far as I recall, it's the psychological process which citizens in democratic states go through that brings them to endorse authoritarianism. Something like democracy frustrates people because they are at once empowered (by choosing their government) but at the same time crushed by the weight of other people's empowerment.

But it's a long time since I read [whatever the relevant text is], so that could be inaccurate...

 

[sponge]

"The Fear of Freedom" - Erich Fromm. The forgotten man of psychoanalysis.

"The Growth of (so-called*) Democracy in Britain" - Annette Mayer. Brilliant summary of UK politics and the history of the struggle for universal suffrage.

"The Poverty of Historicism" - Karl Popper. A philosopher that even I can understand!!

"Propaganda" - Edward Bernays. http://a-albionic.com/pages/Propaganda_by_Edward_Bernays.htm
"The invisible government tends to be concentrated in the hands of the few because of the expense of manipulating the social machinery which controls the opinions and habits of the masses." Maybe that's what Popper imagined what the social sciences should be for ... Never read it but it is meant to be THE book for 20th century liberalism.

"The Money Machine" - Philip Coggan. "As I hope the previous chapters illustrate, the workings of the financial system are not another branch of sub-nuclear physics. They can, and should, be understood by the layman". And this comes from a journalist of the Financial Times.

 

[Sorry.]

I bought Chris Hill's "The Century of Revolution, 1603-1714" for £2.50 today

 

[pema]

May I suggest Noam Chomsky's latest book: "Hegemony or Survivial: America's Quest for Global Dominance". It tells you a lot of things you possibly already knew, but draws them together into something that makes sense. It is also excellent on the history of the US in discussing Woodrow Wilson's policies and how they have affected ALL successive presidents. Clearly they were all shit when it came to foreign policy, no matter how they dressed it up. It can be depressing in places, no doubt.

But do read it!

And anything by Christopher Hill is well worth the money.

 

[Sacred Spirit]

Tariq Alis first novel, Redemption, -- 39p (good value but that it was so cheap is not surprising as the book will only really appeal to cynical ex-Trotskyists.

-- as it has a thinly disguised Ernest Mandel arguing that Marxists should make a turn towards religion to stay relevant in the modern world.

Tariq Ali has the SWP alone in the Trotskyist movement really arguing against this nonsense. Redemption though has to be remembered is a novel,

For fiction it'll def' be a laugh, though not as much as the respect fiasco ! !
How much did the funeral cost, 250,000, - 330,000, ?. cheap at the price.

for a book to read - try Marx and Engles on Religion.
(for full text of quote - see above.)

 

[Sacred Spirit]

no one has suggested this one yet -
'the communist manifesto' - by some german bloke writing in the 1840s.
Very readable and full of fantastic phrases and surprsingly contempoary in much of its analysis.
.

Two German blokes actually, bear in mind if you do read it that it's been abrogated - no longer applicable, read the 1873 intro'/forword for details, the Stalinist's in third world countries don't mention this to their members.

Try also Life and times of Lord Palmerston by K Marx, bearing in mind there is also a collection, poss' 12 volumes by Pamerston of the same name. Their worth the read also.

 

[Sacred Spirit]

Kolonti (spelling?) Love of Worker Bees
now brain overheating!

Kolontai.
Only one of the Bolshevik central commitee of '17 to outlive Stalin, as to which was the worst, is debatable,
For three years after Stalin died nothing changed, except to note he was dead.

 

[ernestolynch]

You still 'ere, sacred spirit?

 

[Sacred Spirit]

You still 'ere, sacred spirit?

Why Stalinist, do you feel haunted ? I'v more to come for you, Hows your theory progressing, are you ready to share your secret ?
or is the schoolyard mouthpiece unable to translate it into written form ?

Everyone should read - The secret Diplomatic History of the Eighteenth Century by K Marx, the newspapers he mention are still in existence if any wish to check, Russia the greatest christian empire, interesting where stalin got his help from.

 

[flimsier]

Why is this twat still posting here?

 

[Sacred Spirit]

Why is this twat still posting here?

olynch, don't know, not a lot else to do I suppose.

 

[chilango]

The Monkeywrench Gang - Edward Abbey
In case y'all get bored want a bit of inspiration. Not PC I know, but pretty damn cool. His other books are actually better. Desert Solitaire being my favorite.

Lasagna: The Man Behind the Mask - Ronald Cross, Helene Sevigny
Canada's own Marcos?

Stone Age Economics - Marshall Sahlins
The science of primitivism...nasty, brutish and short? na uh.

Society of the Spectacle - Guy Debord
Can't beleive no one's mentioned this

To Dream of Freedom - Roy Clews ( I think?)
Guerilla war in Wales? Hell yeah! (well kinda...)

Against His-Story, Against Leviathan - Fredy Perlman
A Primmy history of the world

Just William - Richmal Compton
Anarchy in action!!

There's plenty more , but they can wait till next time i'm stuck in front of a computor screen, no?

 

[Sorry.]

Just went through some my degree notes and thought I'd stick some books on here, in no particular order:

Gerd Rainer Horn European Socialists Respond to Fascism: Ideology, Activism and Contingency in the 1930s A few interesting chapters on how French workers created the united front rather than their politicians.

Ilona Duczynska Workers in Arms: The Austrian Schutzbund and the Civil War of 1934 , About the SPOe's militia, demonstrates how mobilisation not unity is the key to effective antifascism.

Mark Mazower Inside Hitler's Greece , Account of resistance in Greece (against both the puppet government, the Nazis and the British sponsored government in exile), the struggle for Laokratia (people's democracy), the back tracking of the KKE and atrocities by the post-war government and the British Army.

Roger Magraw A History of the French Working Class Volume II: Workers and the Bourgeois Republic , exhaustive account of French working class struggle in the 20th Century.

L.Berlanstein (ed.) Re-Thinking Labor History: Essays on Discourse and Class Analysis, really interesing discussion by several authors of what labour history should do about the challenge from post-structuralism, post-marxism and the emergence of the radical democratic anti-globalization movement.

Barbara Mitchell, The Practical Revolutionaries: A New Interpretation of French Revolutionary Syndicalism , functioning as a retort to Peter Stearns Revolutionary Syndicalism and Labor: A Cause without Rebels , it asserts the importance of federalism and direct action in the CGT before WW1 against accuasations that it was essentially a reformist movement led by a minority of militants.

Chris Read , From Tsar to Soviets: The Russian People and their Revolution , 1917 as a people's revolution stifled by the Bolsheviks.

M.Nolan, Social Democracy and Society: Working-Class Radicalism in Dusseldorf 1890-1920

C.Patton Flammable Material! : German Chemical Workers 1914-24 , Chemical workers were among Germany's most radical during this period, in spite of non-existent unionisation.

A.Papayanis, Alphonse Merrheim: The Emergence of Reformism in Revolutionary Syndicalism , How the CGT turned yella'

D.Goodway(ed, For Anarchism, Couple of excellent contributions - Carl Levy's on Italian Anarchism and Nick Rider on the 1931 Barcelona tenant's strike

Martin Clark, Antonio Gramsci and the Revolution that Failed , Gramsci's former incarnation as council communist and Ordinivisti. Emphasis on the division between Torinese workers' control movement and the CGL bureaucracy.

Paolo Spriano, The Occupation of the Factories, an account of the Autumn 1920 factory occupation in Italy, particularly interesting is the implication that the CGL and PSI backed off because it felt that popular mobilisation was being controlled by Ordinovisti and the USI (Italian branch of the IWA)

Eve Rosenhaft, Beating the Fascists, brilliant work on physical resistance to fascism in Germany.

 

[butchersapron]

Just two quick points on the Gramsci and Spriano books - Gramsci was never a Council Communist in the commonly accepted sense - (despite what Gwyn A Williams has argued at length elsewhere) he always put 'The Party' at the centre of his thought, even when he was at his most councilist when involved with NO - he saw the party as the central directive force, and criticised 'the party' (was still the PSI then i think) during the occupations for failing to act in this manner, and this was a factor in his later stalinism (purging the bordigists etc). I really think it's innaccurate to call him a Council communist and have been perplexed as to why Williams and others have sought to portray him as one - unless their understanding of that term is very limited and not in line with that of most other people. (Williams seems also to have taken his info direct from Spriano).

It pays to be very carfeul with the Stalinist Spriano - he was a typical party historian, ready to write in or out people/groups/events at the drop of a hat and always prepared to twist the 'facts' to support the parties position.

 

[Sorry.]

I wasn't aware he was a Stalinist. Strange because the book I mentioned above rather painted the picture that it was the USI and the Ordine Nuovo that drove/began to control the factory occupations (although I read it for an essay that was arguing that the post-ww1 workers' mobilisation was largely indepedent of the left wing of the 2nd international/ the emergent 3rd international - so perhaps I just read it in a way that produced the argument I was looking for ...).

Apologies for using the "council communist" - I couldn't find a snappy way to say workers' controlist ...

 

[butchersapron]

Nah, it's not you i was having a pop at, just the certain historians who very deliberately, at height of euro-communism (should read euro-stalinism really in the 1970s, attempted to re-ivnent Gramsci as a 'Counil Communist' - Gwyn A Williams specifically using that term over and over. As for Spriano, well, he was a party member for a long long time - though i'm told by Italians mates that his early stuff was better - if still trapped in the partyist worldview. But they really really dislike most of his work.

 

[danno_at_work]

Just two quick points on the Gramsci and Spriano books - Gramsci was never a Council Communist in the commonly accepted sense - (despite what Gwyn A Williams has argued at length elsewhere) he always put 'The Party' at the centre of his thought, even when he was at his most councilist when involved with NO - he saw the party as the central directive force, and criticised 'the party' (was still the PSI then i think) during the occupations for failing to act in this manner, and this was a factor in his later stalinism (purging the bordigists etc). I really think it's innaccurate to call him a Council communist and have been perplexed as to why Williams and others have sought to portray him as one - unless their understanding of that term is very limited and not in line with that of most other people. (Williams seems also to have taken his info direct from Spriano).

It pays to be very carfeul with the Stalinist Spriano - he was a typical party historian, ready to write in or out people/groups/events at the drop of a hat and always prepared to twist the 'facts' to support the parties position.

do you regard any emphasis as a failure to tell the truth?

 

[butchersapron]

do you regard any emphasis as a failure to tell the truth?

Like to show me where i've argued that?

 

[brasicritique]

MALCOM X= Topnotch nuff said.

Raggerd trousered wasit = WMCKXS turn up at the end,save the day with a promise of funds for new banners.yawn

 

[redsquirrel]

care to say why?

 

[The Black Hand]

By Flash and Scare: Arson, Animal maiming and poaching in east Anglia 1815-70 by J. Archer... How the poor protested and fed themselves, very interesting... of course, the animal maiming is not for the faint hearted...

By Rite: ceremony and community in england 1700-1880 by R. Bushaway...
If you want to know the poors radical traditions you should read this (and E.P. Thompsons work)

The Culture of Control by David garland, still writing brit Criminologist, excellent update of his previous work about the penal and welfare systems as a means of social control...

Albion's fatal tree by Hay, Thompson et al, The classic book about the poor, crime, protest and society in the 18th and 19th centuries - very influential...

Liberty against the law by Christopher Hill, one of the masters later works, very good.

professional criminals edited by Dick hobbs - it's ALL here...

Rebecca's Children: A study of rural society, crime and protest by David Jones - you cannot fail to be moved by this book... the social conditions that provoked what became known as the rebecca riots in South Wales

Race rebels: culture, politics, and the black working class by R. Kelley - working in america, this guy is in E.P. thompsons tradition... excellent...

The jerilderie letter by ned kelly - an awesome read, this book is legendary.

The many headed hydra - the hidden history of the revolutionary atlantic by peter Linebaugh and marcus rediker... it says it all in the title. fantastic book about the creation of the Atlantic proletariat...

bandits by Hobsbawm - a key text of an important issue with global and political implications... even looks at Anarchists and Sabate in a reasonable manner...

Cultural criminology and the carnival of crime by Mike Presdee - a good and interesting slant

A history of the Highland clearances: Agrarian transformation and the evictions 1746-1886 by E, Richards. A key text about an important issue.

Crime and markets - essays in anti Criminology by Vincenzo Ruggiero - what can i say? Excellent material, this and his other work is under utilised by our movements...

global women: nannies, maids and sex workers in the new economy by Ehrenreich and Hochschild, very good stuff about the experience of the exploited in the new economy... includes much on resistance too.

The State of the Police by Phil Scraton - published in the wake of the miners strike, loads of interesting material and critical history of the police...

A right to roam by Shoard - excellent history of the struggles for land

The art of War by Sun Tzu - the classic book about the strategy of war

Free markets and food riots by Walton and Seddon - how the economic power of the IMF, World bank etc forces 'structural adjustments' on poor economies provoking riots analogous to bread riots in British history, so ably documented by EP Thompson...

More later